The present invention relates generally to a fastener assembly and more specifically to a fastener assembly which includes a plastic fastener having a cross-bar at one end of an elongated filament.
Plastic fasteners of the type commonly used, for example, to attach merchandise tags to articles of commerce, such as articles of clothing, are well known and are widely used in the retail industry. Typically, such fasteners comprise an elongated member having a first end shaped to define a cross-bar (also commonly referred to as a "T-bar"), a second end and a thin filament portion interconnecting the cross-bar and the second end. In use, the cross-bar is inserted first through a tag and then through a desired piece of fabric. The second end is appropriately sized and shaped to keep the tag from being pulled off the filament portion.
Typically, such fasteners are mass-produced into one of two different forms known as fastener stock. One type of fastener stock comprises a plurality of fasteners joined together at their respective cross-bars by an orthogonally disposed runner bar. The other type of fastener stock comprises a plurality of fasteners arranged in an end-to-end alignment, the ends of successive fasteners being joined together by severable connectors so as to form a length of continuously connected fastener stock.
Both types of fastener stock are commonly mass-produced through a process of continuous molding. As an example of continuous molding, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,738 to Russel a method of continuous extrusion molding of objects using a rotatable molding wheel with peripheral orifices in accordance with the objects to be molded. Plastic is extruded upon the periphery of the wheel and a knife in substantially elipitical contact is used to skive film from the objects being molded. Following molding, selected portions of the objects can be selectively distended. Suitable distention can be achieved using diverging sprocket wheels. When the continuously molded objects are fasteners with filament-like portions, the diverging sprocket wheels can be used to stretch the filamentary portions and reorient their molecules.
The dispensing of individual fasteners from fastener stock into desired articles of commerce is typically accomplished using an apparatus commonly referred to as a tagger gun. Typically, a tagger gun includes (a) a hollow needle having a longitudinal slot extending across its length; (b) means for separating an individual cross-bar from the remainder of the fastener stock; and (c) means for feeding the individual cross-bar through the hollow, slotted needle and the desired article of commerce. Connections, if any, between the ends of adjacent fasteners are severed by pulling the tagger gun away from the article of commerce after the cross-bar of one of the fasteners has been inserted thereinto.
Although plastic fasteners of the type described above work well in the attachment of merchandise tags to articles of commerce, it is nonetheless known that certain unscrupulous consumers, on occasion, engage in the practice of "ticket switching" wherein the price tag for a low-priced item is switched with the price tag for a desired high-priced item using the plastic fastener from either the low-priced or the high-priced item. Various approaches to this problem have been devised, including the implementation of tamper-resistant plastic fasteners.
Although unrelated to the use of plastic fasteners, another common problem suffered by merchants is the theft of their merchandise. One approach that has been adopted by many merchants is the attachment of theft-detection devices, such as electronic article surveillance (EAS) markers, to their articles of commerce. Such devices, which are typically quite large and conspicuous in appearance, include an activating device such as a magnet, a pair of elongated strips of magnetizable material, a miniature electronic circuit, a radio frequency transmitter/receiver or the like which may be releasably attached to the article. The activating device is constructed so as to cause an audible signal or alarm to be emitted from a detector if the article is moved past the detector.
As an example of one type of EAS device, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,401 to Montean a marker for use in radio frequency electronic article surveillance systems where the marker contains an inductive-capacitive resonant circuit and is made reversibly deactivatable and reactivatable by the addition of a piece of magnetic material and means, such as a piece of permanently magnetizable material, for biasing the first material to prevent alternating fields induced therein from changing the magnetic state of that material, thereby preventing hysteresis losses from causing a lowering of the Q of the resonant circuit below the point of detection.
As an example of another type of EAS device, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,240 to Sanford et al an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag comprising a tag body having a central region, side wall regions connected to and integral with the central region and flap regions connected to and integral with the side wall regions. The tag body has fold lines at the junctions of the side wall regions and the flap regions. By folding the tag body along these fold lines and, in the course of the folding procedure, inserting a first magnetic element, a substantially closed box-like housing with the first magnetic element loosely housed therein is formed.